Greenlight sheds light on bogus clothes collectors

The public are said to be getting annoyed with the plethora of plastic bags through the post box, confusing information, unmarked vans and potentially bogus 'charities' that are almost daily occurrences in some areas.

Ann McIlroy of Greenlight Gateway explained: "Last year we collected almost 60,000 kilos of textiles for recycling. This issue though is a very serious problem that is affecting the credibility of all charities, and not just our sector's valuable income.

"While for many months we were concerned about a rise in the incidents of Clothes Banks being targeted by thieves, this ongoing development is a real concern for many people. We are constantly encouraging people to donate and not dump but this is one of the reasons we have not undertaken any door to door collections and have focused on increasing the number of recycling banks across Moyle."

A bit of good news is that a group of MPs wants the Government to organise a summit at which charities, clothing collection agencies and representatives of various government departments would discuss a clampdown on bogus charity clothing collectors.

The early day motion, which was tabled last Wednesday, says research by collection agency Clothes Aid and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs showed the problem was costing charities up to a staggering 12m a year.

It says trading standards bodies should be given more power to regulate charities and commercial firms that operate textile collections.

An Office of the Third Sector spokeswoman said it was already working on a campaign called Give with Care, designed to raise public awareness of bogus collections.

"Powers to tackle this problem already exist, and where bogus collections break the law we encourage enforcement of the law by the relevant agencies and regulators," she said.

Thefts up 30% in past five months

Incredibly bogus collectors are stealing about 50 tonnes of charity collection bags a week, a doorstep collection agency has warned.

The figures from Clothes Aid, which carries out doorstep collections for a number of not-for-profit organisations, show thefts have increased by 30 per cent in the past five months.

It means charities are losing out on about 200 bags of clothing every week - an estimated annual financial loss of up to 3m.

"I imagine it will just get worse as people look for alternative means of income in this recession."

David Moir, head of policy and public affairs at the Association of Charity Shops, said high textile prices were also causing shops to lose out.

"Public trust and confidence in house-to-house collections are being undermined, potentially fatally, by commercial partnerships," the report says. "The public want their donations to benefit charities and their good causes only."

The report also says the rise in commercial collections has led to a 27 per cent fall in the revenue raised by some charity shops from clothing donations during the past 12 months.

It also says charities in commercial partnerships do not receive a fair amount of the money raised by the sale of donated clothes.

"Charities in these partnerships will receive between 50 and 100 per tonne," it says. "Sales of that same tonne of textiles in a charity shop will raise between 2,500 and 4,000. The lesson from this is that the public should read carefully what is written on the clothes banks and ensure they are clear where their donation will ultimately go."

For now, Greenlight Gateway and many of the other local charities are encouraging the public to continue to be as generous and simply think about who they donate any goods to, in the same way as people look at the name on a collecting tin in the street before they give.

When you see a leaflet in your letterbox there are a number of ways to spot the fake charity flyers?

• It will have a contact number but it's more than likely a mobile number. A landline number means that they at least have a base or premises in the country. Many of these collectors are not regulated in this country.

• The flyer should have a registered charity number. A registered business number is not the same.

• Phone your local authority/council and ask if the "charity" is licensed to make door-to-door collections.

• If you have a computer use the Google/Bing search engine to find out about them. Use any registration numbers you find, an identifying website address, even search for text from the flyer. Any charity with the resources to organise a door-to-door clothes collection will have at least some presence on the Internet. You may be shocked at what you discover.

Finally, nearly all local charities like Greenlight Gateway are delighted to come at any time to collect any goods you might wish to donate for recycling if you cannot visit one of their Ballycastle premises or their clothing banks across Moyle

To arrange a suitable time simply call; 028 20761110.